Senior Alyssa Fowler and Audrey Reeves placed at the YCASE student art competition alongside six other students artists showcasing their talents.
Fowler’s photo “Maura” placed first, and fellow student Reeves’s digital art piece “Red Demon” placed second place overall.
Six other Susquehannock students had their work displayed by YCASE at the Murphy and Dittenhafer design firm on Market Street in York.
Seniors Maura Johnson, Wyatt Gutridge, Michael Fox and Bailey Ables alongside junior Allison Bergman and freshman Abigail Apgar all had their work displayed.
Art Teacher Wade Bowers encourages students to take place in this exhibition. Alongside the students from Susquehannock High School, YCASE saw 180 artists submit over 400 pieces of art. Of those submissions, 120 made it to the finalist exhibition.
The grand prize for first place, a $20,000 art scholarship to York College, was awarded to Fowler.
Before the event, Fowler said that the scholarship was a major motivation for her to enter into YCASE.
“I don’t know what I want to do after I graduate, but I definitely want to do something more like the art side,” Fowler said.
Johnson, who submitted a 3D sculpture, is looking forward to having her art displayed.
Fowler has multiple sources of inspiration, mostly the internet, but some of her art pieces showcase different influences.
“I just use Pinterest,” Fowler said. “I don’t really know [the artist’s] names. I just find all the stuff off Pinterest and make Pinterest boards.”
Johnson took inspiration from different aspects of her life.
“I use Pinterest a lot, but …[artists] that I can name [are]… my dad and my uncle,” Johnson said. “My uncle is a tattoo artist, and my dad makes video games… going to my dad’s work and seeing the environment- the whiteboards, and the doodles have always inspired me.”
Fowler wouldn’t have done YCASE without electronic arts teacher Wade Bowers.
“Honestly, it’s just Mr. Bowers yelling at us to put [the artwork] in [the show],” Fowler said.
Bowers has been the adviser for YCASE at Susquehannock for at least five years “What I try to do is I try to get juniors and seniors so they have the opportunity to do that before they graduate,” said Bowers. “I usually take the ones that I feel like students have done a really nice job with something that they are very proud of, but honestly, I start with my seniors and go down the list of who wants to enter, and sometimes I get sophomores and even freshmen into the show.”
However, Bowers still believes that YCASE needs to be promoted more within Susquehannock.
“I feel like we should promote it more,” Bowers said. “I think that the repeat students are usually very excited by it. I think some of the students that hear about it for the first time- they kind of blow it off because they aren’t sure what it is.”
The finalists’ artwork remains on display at the Murphy and Dittenhafer design firm until March 23, 2024.
